The art of work glove design has developed many gloves with improvements in the areas of comfort and flexibility, flame and heat resistance, and impact protection. One challenge faced by designers of work gloves is that, oftentimes, as flame and impact protection are increased, comfort and flexibility are compromised. Thus, work glove designers seek improvements that allow greater flame and impact protection while also improving comfort and flexibility. These improvements are especially desirable in the design of extrication gloves, where flexibility for dexterous movement of the fingers is desirable along with flame resistance and impact protection.
In the area of comfort and flexibility, numerous work gloves have been developed that allow the wearer's finger joints to flex more easily while in the glove. One such development is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,000,524 to Rinehart, which discloses an articulated glove construction. The fingers of Rinehart's glove are enhanced for greater flexibility in the joints by the inclusion of telescopic pleats at each of the finger joints in order that the fingers may be easily flexed. While disclosing an articulating mechanism, Rinehart fails to provide a means for combining greater flexibility with the advantages of flame and heat resistance and impact protection, which are desirable in extrication gloves.
Another such articulating mechanism is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 6,415,443 to Schierenbeck et al., which discloses a protective glove with enhanced finger joints for firefighters. The glove is enhanced by including wider sections at the finger and thumb joints, which facilitate easier flexing of the fingers. The Schierenbeck glove, however, fails to disclose a means by which the wearer's hand is also protected against impact.
Another such glove is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 6,427,249 to Mattesky, which discloses a heavy duty work glove that includes greater flexibility and enhanced friction gripping by including strips of friction grip enhancing elements sewn across the palm of the glove. Mattesky's glove, however, also fails to disclose a means for improving flexibility while maintaining flame and impact protection.
Another articulating mechanism is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 6,732,378 to Novak, which discloses a glove with tucks located at the fourchette of each finger in order to improve flexibility. While directed towards improving flexibility and reducing hand fatigue of the wearer, Novak's glove fails to disclose a system that includes effective flame and heat resistance and impact protection. In summary, while representing improvements in the area of flexibility and comfort, the above designs fail to disclose a glove design that is flexible, while maintaining flame and heat resistance and impact protection.
Another class of work gloves has been developed in order to protect the wearer from flame and heat resistance. U.S. Pat. No. 4,454,611, for example, to Tschirch et al. discloses a fireproof glove that includes a layer of flame resistant elastomer. Tschirch's glove, however, fails to disclose a means of combining flame resistance with enhanced flexibility and impact protection.
Another such glove is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,349,705 to Ragan, which discloses a multi-layered firefighter's glove. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,740,551 to Walker discloses a multi-layered protective glove with a liquid impenetrable layer beneath a flexible outer layer. Both Ragan and Walker's gloves, however, fail to disclose a system that includes enhanced flexibility and impact protection.
One flame resistant glove that includes enhancements for improved flexibility is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,822,796 to Harges, Jr. et al. Harges, Jr. discloses a protective glove for firefighters that includes a relatively thin inner-protective glove which is covered by an outer portion of fire resistant material and insulation batting. In one embodiment of the invention, the Harges, Jr. glove includes lateral indentations, flex joints, accordion folds, or lateral cut-outs at the finger joints in order to enhance flexibility. The Harges, Jr. glove, however, fails to disclose a glove that includes a system for impact protection. Also, because the insulating batting material is relatively thick, the glove is better suited to work such as fighting wildland fires, where subtle movement of the fingers is not necessary. Thus, the glove is unsuitable for certain applications, such as extrication, where impact protection and dexterous movement of the fingers are desirable.
Another class of gloves has been developed to prove the wearer with impact protection for work and sports applications. U.S. Pat. No. 4,272,849 to Thurston, et al., for example, discloses a work glove with steel plates included between the layers of the glove and protecting the proximal, middle, distal phalanx. Because the steel plates do not extend to the finger joints, they do not substantially interfere with the flexing of the finger. The Thurston glove, however, is relatively heavy and unwieldy because of the inclusion of metallic materials and fails to disclose a system for flame resistance.
Several gloves, particularly for the sport of hockey, have been developed, which offer the wearer a great deal of impact protection by including a layer of pads that covers the outside of an inner glove. The pads, however, are bulky and tend to limit the flexibility of the glove. U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,147 to Gazzano et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,488,739 to Cardinal disclose mechanisms for improving the flexibility of these padded sports gloves. Gazzano's glove features beveled edges at the protective pads in order to allow easier flexing of the wearer's joints. Cardinal's glove, meanwhile, features a flexible web of material at the finger joints in order to allow easier flexing, while protecting the joints of the finger. Both of these gloves, however, a relatively heavy and unwieldy and, thus, unsuited to applications, such as extrication, where dexterous movement of the fingers is required. Also, neither glove discloses a design that is flame or heat resistant.
Several other gloves have been developed specifically for extrication and include varying degrees of impact protection and flame and heat resistance. None of these gloves, however, discloses a means for providing the wearer with enhanced flexibility of the fingers while maintaining flame and impact resistance.
Thus, there remains a long-felt need in the art for a heavy-duty work glove that affords the wearer flame resistance and impact protection, and includes a system for easier articulation of the finger joints.